Chapter 38: Trust Issues

Despite her warnings to Rachel, Tricia could see it in Rachel's facial expression that Rachel did not plan on listening. Instead, she angrily removed Tricia's hand from her mouth. 

"Don't cover my mouth up, okay? We have covered our mouths up for too much. She has already used this man too much, okay? Alex is just too innocent for all this. He is too innocent to be used by Isabella continuously. Isabella is just the one gaining everything from him, okay? Just because she decided to concentrate on her studies and become smart, which she already is, that makes her special. That makes whatever she had done to Alex wrong. All of a sudden, she's now righteous and good. You are now happy for her, even smiling, saying that she's doing the right thing. She is not doing the right thing. You and I both know, if we had not warned her, she would still go back to Professor James. And you know that at this rate, she would still go back to him. Even though we continuously warn her, she would still pick Professor James," Rachel said.

A thousand times Rachel tried to talk sense into Tricia, who laughed. "That is none of your business. If she does that and she gets into any trouble, it is none of your business. At that point, you should know that you should not intervene anymore. Instead, leave them alone to face their matter, okay? She's only our roommate and our friend, nothing else. You are not obliged to interfere in her relationship. If she decides to continuously deceive Alex, then let it be that way. Do you understand?" Tricia warned.

"You don't understand me, Tricia. It's not just about whatever she's doing, okay? It is just…." Tricia knew at that moment that whatever Rachel wanted was different from what she was thinking. It was more than obvious from the way she spoke that she wanted something else. Something was going wrong. Something was involved, and things were not the way they were supposed to be. 

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Rachel, don't tell me that this is your plan. Please don't tell me this is what you want to do. How can you even plan to do something as stupid as that? Are you in love with him? Are you in love with your friend? Your own friend's boyfriend? Please tell me you're not in love with him, and it's just my own imagination. Instead, you are trying to make her do the right thing. The moment you try to fall in love with him, everything will go sideways. Do not fall in love with him, okay? He belongs to Isabella, and he can never love anybody else. Do not make Isabella's life even more complicated. Just let her live her life. Don't get involved," Tricia tried to warn Rachel, who scoffed. 

"I tried my best not to get involved, okay? She was the foolish one who was not able to see that Alex was a good man and somebody she was supposed to love, someone she was supposed to care about. Instead, she ditched him for that boring professor. For goodness sake, who dates a professor? She made a huge mistake, and I plan on making her regret it. I plan on making her realize her mistake," Rachel said.

Just then, they heard the door creak open, and Tricia hurriedly covered Rachel's mouth. She would not talk even though she tried her best to drag herself from Tricia's grip. Tricia was stronger than her, as she held onto her mouth firmly. 

"Shh," she muttered, but it only made Rachel angry. You could see it in her face that she was angry at Tricia for trying to cover her mouth and shut her up. 

"Let me be," she tried to mutter, but Tricia did not let her. Meanwhile, at that moment, Alex and Isabella came out. From the looks of everything, Isabella could immediately tell that something was going on between the both of them, and they were just keeping it a secret. But Isabella decided to wave it off. 

After everything that Rachel had said to her, she knew that things would not just end as simply as she wanted it to. Now she had to warn Rachel and Tricia that they should not get involved in her relationship anymore because it seemed as though just because they had a mouth in whatever was going on, they suddenly wanted to be in command. Even though Tricia did not care about what was going on, Rachel had made the first assumption, and now Isabella was not sure if she could trust any of them anymore.

After Alex had driven off, while Isabella still stood up and waved at him with a wide smile, she turned immediately to Rachel and Tricia, who stood there with a fake smile, but Rachel was not smiling. 

"What were you two whispering about? And besides, Rachel, you abandoned your friend inside, and she made my discussion with my boyfriend a bit awkward," Isabella said, which angered Rachel, who pushed Tricia aside and rushed to face Isabella.

"You don't tell me that, okay? This hostel room belongs to the three of us, and we have rights to bring anybody we want. You can't just bring your boyfriend here and expect to have him there when you know that we are also entitled to that room. Do you understand?" Rachel warned.

"I am not saying I want to do anything with Alex. I only said Alex was uncomfortable. Had it been  you guys were there, he wouldn't have been uncomfortable, but she was a total stranger, and he was uncomfortable. So I decided to question you as to why you left her there and came outside to discuss with Tricia," Isabella tried to explain, but Rachel was ready for her. 

"What do you mean by I stood outside and I was gossiping with Tricia? What do you know? You know nothing, yet you act like you know everything. You don't know anything, okay? You should better be careful and don't let Alex leave you because of your stupid character," Rachel shouted.

Isabella was confused. "What do you mean my stupid character? What exactly is going on? Why have you been firing back at me? What exactly is your problem? Just because you know everything about me doesn't mean you should use it to insult me. Do you understand? I am only trying my best to change, and you have no right to tell me what to do!" Isabella exclaimed.